Did you know that the first union in the comic book industry to ratify a contract—Comic Book Workers United—only did so in 2023, over seven decades after the first group of comic workers attempted to organize? The long, winding labor struggles of the industry are just one of the underexplored areas of comics history that Standal addresses in this essay collection. Another is the proto-feminism of Little Lulu, the curly-haired character created by Marge Buell who “impishly fought against anything she deemed unfair, particularly boys’ treatment of girls,” first in the pages of the Saturday Evening Post and then as a cartoon character on the silver screen. Standal writes about Héctor Oesterheld, the celebrated Argentinian author of The Eternaut, whose political activity led to him being disappeared by his own government in 1977, and David Mazzucchelli, the illustrator of celebrated 1980s runs of Batman and Daredevil who turned away from the big publishers at the height of his success to make and publish more personal stories for far less money. The book’s longest essay is a fascinating study of how three of the comics world’s most successful creators—Charles Schulz, Jim Davis, and Bill Watterson—navigated the hazards of stewarding characters popular enough to be turned into merchandisable products. “Calvin and Hobbes has remained a crown jewel, despite Watterson ending the strip almost three decades ago,” writes Standal in his plainspoken prose. “More impressive, this popularity manifested even though there [haven’t] been balloons, animated specials, or toys to keep the characters in the public eye.” The effect of the book is a bit like if Mike Davis wrote a history of comics, approaching the field through the lens of economic power structures. For those who only think of comics in terms of DC and Marvel superheroes, Standal’s essays offer insight into the myriad systemic difficulties faced by artists attempting to make a living.